born as son of poor family of weavers in Ernstthal at 10 pm in the house Niedergasse 111. He is the 5th child of the 32 years old Heinrich August May and his 27 years old wife Christiane Wilhelmine geb. Weise. The next day he is batized at the evgl.-luth. church St. Trinitatis in Ernstthal . Because of the poor live and the hunger only hes 4 years old sister Auguste Wilhelmine survived.

Birth of the sister Christiane Wilhelmine, later married Schöne. The lack on Vitamin A causing of the general hunger in the region let Karl Friedrich becomes blind.

Karl Friedrich moved to hes grandmother, Johanne Christiane May, the mother of hes father. The stories hes grandmother told him influenced his talent as an storyteller in his future live. Because the family can't efford medical help, Karl Friedrich becomes definitively blind. In the middle of the year the family moved to the house of the weaver Carl August Knobloch at Marktplatz 183. On August 15th Christiane Wilhelmine May starts to fearn for becoming a midwife.

Johanne Christiane May examines as a Midwife in Dresden . Her examinators, proffessor Haase and professor Grenser learn about her son and cure him. Karl Friedrich is now able to see.

Birth of hes second sister Ernestine Pauline.

Birth of hes sister Karoline Wilhelmine, later married Selbmann.

Birth of Karl Friedrichs later fisrst wife, wird Emma Lina Pollmer in Hohnstein . Her mother died on December 4th.

Karl wrote hes first Indian Story at the teachers seminar in Waldenburg. Ernst Keil, publisher of the "Gartenlaube", a popular magazine, refuses this today lost story.

Karl steal 6 candles at the teachers seminar where he is learning to give them for the christmas tree at the towns asylum.

He is exclude from the teachers seminar, but a decret of the ministry of culture allowed him to continue hes studies in Plauen .

Karl passes hes examinations to become a teacher and starts in Glauchau . There he is suprised by Ernst Theodor Meinhold when he kissed Meinholds 19 years old wife Henriette. The result is, that Karl looses his work as a teacher. He starts working in Altchemnitz where he shared a room with Julius Hermann Scheunpflug. From J. H. Scheunpflug he buys a pocket-clock. When he went to his family on December 24th, he becomes imprisoned, blamed to have stolen this clock and some other stuff of Julius Hermann Scheunpflug. He have to be imprisoned in Chemnitz for 6 weeks. After this he can't work as an teacher anymore.

Karl moves to Naußlitz near Dresden . On July 9th he went to Penig and calls himself "Dr. med. Heilig", let make some new clothes and vanishes without paying for it. On December 16th he arrives Chemnitz as Seminarlehrer Ferdinand Lohse and get some furs in the same way while he is living at the "Goldener Anker".